Sinn Féin calls for 20mph zones in residential areas

West Tyrone MLA, Declan Mc Aleer has
said that his party supports the call for the speed limit in built up areas to
be reduced to 20mph.

According to Mr Mc Aleer, who sits on
the DRD committee,

"At our Ard Fheis in February we passed a motion in support
of the ’20 is plenty’ campaign and on the DRD committee we are carefully
scrutinising the Road Traffic (Speed Limits) Bill.

"On a recent fact finding visit to
Edinburgh where the councils Transport committee is carrying out a pilot scheme
on 40kms of local roads, we heard evidence that the reduced speed limit is
making roads safer, particularly for vulnerable people and is also encouraging
people to make a modal shift to more sustainable forms of transport, such as
cycling."

‘The aim of the proposed legislation is
to make built up areas more safer and whilst we support a reduced speed limit
of 20mph in built up areas, to date we have been presented with little evidence
that this could not be achieved using existing legislation.

‘At present, DRD can designate areas as
20mph zones. In fact, there is currently 88.7 miles of road with a 20mph limit
in the north. This includes 36.8 miles in Belfast and 5.0 miles in Omagh.

‘However, if the proposed legislation is
implemented all urban roads in the north (4291 km) would be reduced to a 20mph
default limit. In such a scenario, DRD would then have to painstakingly
go through each road and present the case for its 20mph limit to be deviated
from, if required.

‘The other reality is that rural roads
would not be covered by such legislation and statistically around three quarter
of fatalities occurs on such roads. Whilst we are supportive of a 20mph
limit in residential and other built up areas, a lot more evidence and scrutiny
is required before the case for new legislation can be proven’.